General Information

Premise:

In a Gotham populated by human analogues of the Looney Tunes, a hardboiled Elmer Fudd crosses paths with the Batman over the death of his lady-love, Silver St. Cloud.

High Points

The noir artwork and washed colours, and the numerous Easter Eggs, perfectly reflect the writing, which recounts events not especially weirder than anything Batman has encountered before.

Low Point

Apart from being predictable, the conclusion doesn’t do justice to the story that brings us there.

The Scores

Originality: 2/6 The storyline uses deliberate clichés, but they’re clichés nonetheless, and this kind of insane crossover, fresherwhen Archie met the Punisher back in ’94, has always been a part of comix.

Artwork: 5/6 The lead story features excellent artwork; the back-up features a passable impersonation of classic Warner Brothers.

Story: 5/6 The story walks a very fine line indeed; it’s not exactly parody, but brings the bizarre fun. And while it’s fun, its characters possess genuinely tortured souls. A buck-toothed, carrot-munching lowlife named “Bugs” sets much of the plot in motion. “Ain’t I a stinker?” he asks, about his part in events. The bartender is a dead ringer, albeit a human one, for Porky Pig. A short-tempered biker with an over-sized red mustache plays cards in the bar with a southern-born loudmouth. Fudd himself is a driven, haunted man. Not since “The Coyote Gospel” in Animal Man have the Warner Brothers ‘toons been so perfectly, darkly repurposed.

Characterization: 4/6

Emotional response: 5/6

Flow 5/6

Overall: 5/6 The most amazing thing about this comic is that it works at all.